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Dungeons & Dragons Insider: The GenCon Demo

We check out the progress of the Dungeons & Dragons digital content initiative.

Few other things have had as profound an impact on the videogame industry as the paper-and-pencil role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons. Consider just two of the game's basic mechanics -- the hit point, or mathematical measurement of a character's health, and the idea of "xp," or gradually increasing a character's power based on experience -- and you come up with part of the fundamental DNA of the videogame experience. It's perhaps only fair, then, that with the launch of the Fourth Edition of the Dungeons & Dragons rule set, Wizards of the Coast might decide to borrow back something from videogames. Dungeons & Dragons Insider has become Wizards' answer to the ever-growing popularity of videogaming.

D&D Insider was announced at the 2007 GenCon as a five-part subscription-based electronic supplement to Dungeons & Dragons. Subscriptions will run $7.95 per month with discounts for three and 12-month commitments. Since that announcement, two of the five programs have started running in free trial mode. The company's two D&D magazines "Dragon" and "Dungeon" are available as 100% downloadable digital content. The "D&D Compendium" is a searchable online database covering every single rule and officially issued errata for feats, powers, magic items or any other technical issue that might need to be looked up in the course of a game. While currently far from complete, the Compendium's entries are growing every day.

The real meat and potatoes of Dungeons & Dragons Insider, though, are still under development. Collectively known as the "Digital Tools," they represent a remarkably powerful suite of programs that Wizards hopes will do two things. The obvious purpose for the tools is to help automate much of the mathematical drudgery that accompanies a D&D game, help games move faster, and give players more time and more space to let their imaginations roam free. The larger purpose of the digital initiative is to allow players to connect with each other and play in ways that weren't possible before the dawn of the Internet -- in other words, to play more D&D.

"This isn't a videogame experience, it's a Dungeons & Dragons experience," said Wizards of the Coast's VP for Digital games Randy Buehler as he began a demonstration of the Digital Tools. He was, however, remarkably candid when it came to acknowledging the Digital Initiative's debt to the videogame world. "We love videogames and we're definitely taking some stuff back from them," he said as he fired up an early version of the "Character Builder" tool. "We love the way online games help distant friends connect with one another. We like the idea of helping players do the math and find the proper rules faster and we like the idea of using visuals as an aid to imagination."

He's just as adamant, however, when he explains what D&D Insider is not. "This is not a videogame," he asserted. "We do nothing with rules enforcement, nor do we dictate anything to anybody. The players and the Dungeon Master still have to do the work; we just want to make the work easier so there's more time for fun." Indeed, it's a living Dungeon Master that Buehler points to as the biggest distinction between D&D Insider and videogames -- including the digital versions of Dungeons & Dragons itself. "A good DM takes the players places that no videogame could ever go." He points out that DMs can improvise based on a player's actions, react to sudden changes because of lucky rolls of the dice, and help players with things like diplomacy, social situations, a fantasy world's politics and other relationships that fall outside of the numerical realm of combat. "No matter how good the videogame, in the end you can still only go to the places the programmer has created," he said.

The first element of D&D Insider we took a look at was the "Character Builder." In appearance, the Character Builder isn't all that different from character builders available in computerized RPGs. Indeed, the obvious comparison is the excellent character creator developed by Obsidian Entertainment for Neverwinter Nights 2. Like that game, it walks players through the process of selecting a race, selecting a class, rolling their initial characteristics, and choosing feats, spells, powers and equipment. The tools can offer recommendations for classes or feats or spells based on what type of experience the player has asked for or the selections already made. The tool will also gray out illegal choices. Each selection made when the user's PC is connected to the Net also brings up a mini-page from the D&D Compendium and hyperlinked "other recommendations."